Alliance can crack Modi's armour one blow at a time

By stopping an electoral landslide, the opposition bloc has exposed the weakness of India’s leader, writes Arpan Rai

- Arpan Rai

The mood is electric inside a packed Congress party headquarters in Delhi as activists and workers jostle to get a glimpse of Rahul Gandhi, who arrives at the podium with a red pocket-size edition of the Indian constitution in his hand.

He utilised this prop throughout the election campaign as he warned that a third straight Narendra Modi landslide would allow the Hindu nationalist BJP to rip up the country’s constitution and declare India a Hindu state.

The landslide never materialised, and Modi is now in the process of agreeing a coalition government that will force him to rely on allies for his majority, a limited mandate that could have far-reaching consequences for the next five years.

Congress and its allies still came second to Modi’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) – but you would never guess it based on the atmosphere here on Tuesday night, where the party’s workers declared the INDIA bloc’s unexpectedly strong 230 seats the start of the country’s “second independence movement”. This time the independence is not from British colonialism, but from what they call Modi’s “hate politics”.

This is a struggle, they say, that is once again led by a Gandhi, whose family played a key role in India’s original freedom movement.

“The country has unanimously and clearly stated we don’t want Modi and [his aide and home minister Amit] Shah to rule this country. I’m extremely proud of the people of India who have resisted this attack on the country,” 53-year-old Gandhi tells a room packed with reporters. Gandhi, who comes from a family that has given India three prime ministers, including its first, thanks India’s poorest voters for restoring the country’s faith in democracy.